Sherborne House

Sherborne House

Sherborne House is a former country house converted into flats in 1982. It stands on the site of a former grange and hunting lodge belonging to Winchcombe Abbey. The house was probably built by Valentine Strong of Taynton for John Dutton, then substantially rebuilt by Lewis Wyatt between 1829 and 1834. The interior decoration of the principal rooms was undertaken by Anthony Salvin around 1841.

The building is constructed of ashlar with a slate roof topped by ashlar stacks. It follows a basically square plan with a courtyard at its centre. A short passage on the north side links the house to the adjacent church. The main façade is three storeys high with fenestration arranged as 3-5-1-5-2-1 windows. An off-centre porch projects to the left, with a three-storey wing projecting forward on the left side and a shorter wing toward the right-hand end. To the left of the porch stands a three-windowed, three-storey bay window, with a similar two-windowed bay to the right-hand return of the left wing.

The fenestration varies across the façade. To the left of the porch, the ground floor features four-pane sashes. Stone-mullioned ovolo-moulded cross windows appear on the right-hand return of the wing to the right and to the first floor. The second floor has two-light ovolo-moulded stone-mullioned casements, with all stone-mullioned casements throughout featuring horizontal glazing bars. The three-storey projecting porch has a moulded round-headed entrance arch with imposts and keystone. Within the porch is a double door with six fielded panels and a large oval ceiling boss decorated with a lobster. The porch fenestration includes a cross window to the floor above with moulded architrave and square-sectioned stone mullion, and a two-light stone-mullioned casement with matching architrave and mullion above. Similar fenestration appears to the right of the porch, with sashes to the second and third floors. Engaged columns on projecting engaged plinths flank each window, with Ionic capitals on the ground floor and Corinthian capitals to the upper floors. A parapet rises from a wide string course with brackets below.

The south front is of similar style but features rusticated stonework to the ground floor, with engaged columns on the second floor rising from projecting consoles. Rainwater heads are decorated with a five-feather motif. On the south side, steps up to the house are flanked by a stone balustrade. Ornate wrought-iron gates incorporating the initial 'S' at the top of the steps are flanked by low square piers with ball finials. A three-storey canted bay facing into the central courtyard is complemented by a 'cloister'-like covered walk with a round-headed arched arcade around part of the courtyard.

The interior contains several notable features. The former hallway has plastered intersecting beams and a 19th-century fireplace with paired fluted columns with Ionic capitals supporting a panelled ogee-curved canopy. A spiral staircase was inserted in the 19th century at the south end, and the hallway windows contain 19th-century heraldic glass.

Lord Sherborne's study (now Flat 2) is located to the left of the entrance. Its doorway has a triangular pediment, and it contains a large 19th-century fireplace with a projecting canopy decorated with eclectic motifs, along with a smaller fireplace with lugged surround. The ceiling features a simple cornice incorporating a tulip motif, with one small area decorated with a five-petal flower motif within a lattice.

The Library Flat (number 11) incorporates a barrel-vaulted cellar with moulded stops to the ribs of the vault. The library retains its mid-19th-century appearance with finely carved bookshelves and mirrors. It features a marble fireplace with egg-and-dart moulding, a fielded dado, moulded architraves with carved faces and festoon decoration over the door, and an ornate moulded ceiling rose and cornice.

The dining room (Flat 18) has a fielded dado and fielded eight-panel doors within architraves with acanthus decoration, with carved faces and festoons above. The wooden fire surround is ornately decorated with cornucopias and consoles on either side with hanging fruit below. The ceiling displays extremely fine moulded plasterwork decoration, featuring a casement moulded cornice with scallop shells at the corners and a continuous vine scroll motif along the lower edge of the cornice, with a finely executed ceiling rose.

The main staircase is of 19th-century date with 17th-century style splat balusters. The stairs within the north wing possibly retain original 17th-century turned balusters, with newels featuring sunken panel decoration and pierced finials that were replaced in the 19th century. The ballroom has been reduced in size by one bay in the 20th century, with the cornice and dado reproduced on the new partition wall. It features a white marble fireplace with an original mirror above and a ceiling with ornate plasterwork decoration. The plasterwork ceilings in all principal rooms are attributed to Anthony Salvin, a pupil of John Nash.

The property was in the ownership of the Dutton family from around 1552 until 1970. James Dutton was created the first Lord Sherborne by George III in 1784. Mid-19th-century alterations were carried out by James, the third Lord Sherborne.